NATS 1700 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Luddite, Deskilling, Sociotechnical System
Document Summary
The view that technology is an autonomous force that changes society by reshaping social life and driving social change. Claims technical progress is unavoidable, equates it with social progress. Technology is not an irresistible force moving in one direction and shaping us at its will because it does not exist as an autonomous force outside society and it has no will of its own. Technology is one important aspect of social life that interacts with many other aspects of it: while having effects on society, technology is affected by the social context. In the 1920s, there were two designs both based on vaporization and condensation of a refrigerant. Electrical: vaporization and condensation was controlled by an electric pump. Gas: heated by a gas flame ammonia vaporizes, then is absorbed into water, it cools and it condenses. The gas version was more energy-efficient, silent and cheaper to maintain.